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Rude Stand Erected for Service at Old Fort, Raleigh. 



plgrtmag? tn SUianflk? 

Sometime before the assembling of the Council of the Diocese 
of East Carolina, Bishop Strange had been planning, in company 
with the Rector and Vestry of Christ Church, Elizabeth City, to 
take advantage of the meeting in Elizabeth City to visit Roanoke 
Island, a spot of such historic interest to State and Church in North 
Carolina, to commemorate the endeavors of the brave men who 
made the attempt at settlement on Roanoke, and especially to 
commemorate by appropriate service the baptism of Manteo, the 
first Indian convert, and Virginia Dare, the first child of English 
parents born in America. 

A special program was arranged and the Council set apart 
Wednesday, May 20, as the day for the pilgrimage. 

The Rector and Vestry of Christ Church very courteously and 
most generously extended an invitation to the members of the 
Council to become their guests on this occasion. 

Early Wednesday morning a happy party assembled at the pier, 
in holiday attire and fine spirit, and embarked on the steamer 
Virginia for Roanoke. 

The day was in every way ideal for the pilgrimage, cool and 
bright, with a pleasant breeze blowing. 

To most of the visitors, the views of the Pasquotank were new and 
interesting and the Sound was indeed attractive. Arrived at 
Roanoke Island, after a ride of 40 miles on river and sound, the 
company was carried ashore in Roanoke shad boats — very pictur- 
esque indeed. As one of the party remarked, the scene was not 
unlike the original landing, in appearance. 

Many of the faint hearted felt misgivings at the thought of being 
lowered into the smaller craft; but without mishap the landing 
was accomplished and most pleasantly for all. 

On the shore of the island the Bishop and Clergy formed in 
procession and marched a short distance through the woods to the 
spot identified as the site of Old Fort Raleigh, and appropriately 
marked by a granite stone. 

From a rude structure erected there in the woods, on ground 
hallowed by brave deeds and sacred memories, were said the 



6 
creed and prayers of that Church whose history runs back through 
all the Christian centuries to the Pentecostal baptism with the 
Holy Spirit. 

Rev. Claudius F. Smith took the opening service and the lesson 
was read most impressively by Rev. Luther Eborn and Rev. Edward 
Wootten read the- prayers. After the singing of hymn 196, "Our 
Father's God," Mr. D. M. Stringfield, of Roanoke, in a short but 
hearty greeting welcomed us to this historic spot, the home of his 
people. 

This welcome was followed by a cordial greeting from Rev. 
Robert B. Deane, D. D., President of the Roanoke Colony Memorial 
Association. 

To both addresses, Bishop Strange responded in happy manner, 
recalling at the same time the religious character of the enterprise 
that brought the brave voyagers to these shores and promising to 
come not many moons hence, to place the Church in permanent resi- 
dence on this island, where its ministrations were first performed 
so long ago. 

Lieut. Governor Francis D. Winston was next introduced as the 
special orator of the day; and very eloquently and strongly did he 
present the story of early colonization. 

After the singing of the Gloria in Excelsis and the benediction 
by the Bishop, a salute was fired by the Elizabeth City Naval 
Reserves, who had joined us on the pilgrimage and formed in the 
procession. 

With boats in line, stem to stern, we were towed out to the 
Virginia and returned to Elizabeth City, feeling that it was good 
to be present at a Church service on such a spot in commemoration 
of brave deeds and heroic faith and the sacramental life of the 
Church. 

—THOMAS P. NOE. 




Christ Church, Elizabeth City, If. C. 



D. M. Stringfield, Esq., Manteo, N. C. 

It has long been known that addresses of this nature are most 
appreciated for their brevity; therefore I do not feel disposed to 
tire this distinguished company with a waste of words. Under 
the peculiar circumstances that surround me I could not if I would, 
and I would not if I could. 

Samuel Johnson has said, in what I have always said was his 
masterpiece, 'that human life was a thing wherein there was much 
to be endured and little to be enjoyed,' and yet as morose as 
he was at the time, he indicated in the following utterances that 
those who suffer most enjoy the keenest. This occasion is indeed 
one very much to be enjoyed by those of my people whose connec- 
tion with this community and its interests is most intimate and in- 
tense. To me it is a delight to be sure, were it not for the fact that 
for the last fifteen to twenty days I have been engaged in Superior 
Court and in the mountains on a trip, while the fact that I 
was commissioned to deliver these broken remarks has stalked 
like a ghost in the night time to shake its skeleton fingers before 
me. 

After the fall of Greece they said that the same waves washed 
daily upon her shores, the same beautiful sky looked down upon 
her, but that it was living Greece no more. Here it is a far dif- 
ferent prospect. It is the same waves and the same skies, but it is 
living a greater life than ever before. Taking a position over on 
the shores of the Tiber it is related to us that it is even yet pos- 
sible to see with the eye the place where that great Roman Em- 
pire had its birth — that people that held for so many years the 
supremacy of the world by the sheer force of its genius and feats 
of soldiery. Their work is done, the lips that spoke to them as 
gods are dust, their warfare's o'er, their civilization a bitter mem- 
ory. Standing here we look upon the spot where was the begin- 
ning of that great race which has paled all of their glory, put to 
shame their forms of government, struck to silence the braggadocio 
of their stifling of the will of the people, and challenged the inspira- 
tion of their bards. Right here is where the lessons started that no 
Government can long live without the understanding that the peo- 
ple are sovereign to say how, when and where. Here is where 



10 
they began to teach kings, queens, powers and potentates that de- 
mocracy is the only government, that the golden rule applies, that 
through toil, sacrifice and the practices of universal brotherhood 
are the only safeguards to the eternal principles of liberty, truth, 
justice and right. 

Pause and think for but a moment what has happened since here 
Virginia Dare was born. Alas! beyond the comprehension of mere 
man. Since this spot gave the Anglo-Saxon the start, what won- 
drous things has he not done, what changes has he not wrought 
in the ideas of men everywhere? He has written history every 
page of which is a scream, a shout toward the accomplishment of 
the sublime in this life, believing always, whatever his creed may 
have been, that rulerchip by the consent of the governed is and 
was the only government that ever animated the hopes and blessed 
the sacrifices of mankind. And then after he tore through moun- 
tains, altered the destiny of nations, made high lands out of rivers, 
shackled the sunshine for his own use, and called down the light- 
ning from the sky, like the mighty engine that climbs the moun- 
tain, he seems to look back and smile at his strength, the still — I 
WILL. 

But I am here to welcome the dignitaries of that great religious 
organization which was first to lay its hand upon the first white 
child to see the light in this new world and baptize it into the 
faith of a Christian. I could not make you feel more at home 
than to recall to you that this distinction is yours — a consummation 
devoutly to be wished. On behalf of those here interested in the 
work of preserving this historic spot, I bid you welcome; in behalf 
of the town that has prospered and nestled down on the bay; in 
behalf of your sister Churches hereabouts, and in behalf of the 
people of Roanoke Island, I welcome you. 

And may the spirit which must have stirred your bosom when 
you took the little child from the wilderness into the fold ever domi- 
inate to embellish the self-denial and strengthen the aspirations of 
your people. 




Monument on Site of Old Fort Raleigh, Roanoke Island. 



On this site, in July- August, 1585, (O. S.) Colonists 
sent out from England by Sir Walter Raleigh, built a fort, 
called by them 

"THE NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA" 

These Colonists were the First Settlers of the English 
race in America. 

They returned to England in July, 1 586. with Sir Francis 
Drake. 

Near this place was born, on the 18th of August, 1587, 

VIRGINIA DARE, 

the first child of English parents born in America — daughter 
of Ananias Dare and Eleanor White, his wife, members of an- 
other band of Colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587. 
On Sunday, August 20th, 1587, Virginia Dare was 
baptized. Manteo, the friendly chief of the Hatteras Indians, 
had been baptized on the Sunday previous. These baptisms are 
the First known celebrations of a Christian Sacrament in the 
territory of the Thirteen Original United States. 

1896 

In memory, too, 
of our founder and first President 

EDWARD GRAHAM DAVES. 

Erected by the Roanoke Colony Memorial Association 
November 24th, 1896. 

Graham Daves, 

President. 
John Bassett, 

Secretary & Treasurer. 



Inscription on Monument. 



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By the President of the Roanoke Colony Association — 
Rev. Robert B. Diane, D. D. 

Bishop and Brethren: 

After listening to the words of welcome just received, I am sure 
you feel no need of mine; for they well maiutain the tradition of 
the spirit of kindness and hospitality which, history tells us r 
characterized the reception given our English forefathers by 
Manteo and the Indian inhabitants of Roanoke Island. 

I assure you that the present owners of this historic site hold it 
in no spirit of exclusiveness, but rather as the opening words of 
the 24th Psalm (used in the devotions of this occasion) : "The 
earth is the Lord's and all that therein is: the compass of the world 
and they that dwell therein;" and they feel that nothing but God's 
hand has preserved, hitherto, those traces of the old faith which 
are here around us. 

We welcome a human interest in these precious relics and we 
invite a large cooperation both for the preservation of the material 
signs of old foundations and for the appreciation and interpretation 
to our generation of tho beginnings here marked in Mother Earth. 

"The earth hath He given to the children of men," we welcome 
your interest today; we wish that every year the 18th of August, 
the birthday of Virginia Dare, there would be a gathering of this 
kind, to perpetuate the memory of those first colonists and cele- 
brate the Christian motives set forth in their charters of religious 
missionary zeal and enlightened civilization. We repeat the wel- 
come. 




Landing' on Roanoke Island. 



Abfcr?00 nf ltB!?0p Strang? 
at Mnxt Salngl? 

In behalf of this goodly company, vi behalf of the Episcopal 
Church in East Carolina, I give you thanks, Mr. Stringfield, for 
your hearty welcome to this historic Island of Roanoke. 

In ancient days the highest honor done to a distinguished visitor 
was his welcome before the gate of the city by its leading citi- 
zens, and their gift to him of the freedom of their city. So, sir, I 
take it that your presence and that of this body of honorable citi- 
zens and your words of welcome are an offer to us of the freedom of 
the Island, that you bid us to come and be one of you, sharing your 
work and your pleasure, your sorrow and your joy. 

We appreciate this invitation, and we thank you. We have been 
right late in coming, but we have come to meet and know you, 
and, before long, we shall come to stay. In a few years, I trust, we 
shall build an Episcopal Church in you chief town of Manteo, and 
then join with you in adding to the beauty and the strength of our 
Christian civilization. 

And to you, Dr. Drane, the president of the Roanoke Memorial 
Association, I extend our thanks for your welcome to the property 
of the Association on which we stand. 

Sir Walter Scott tells us that there lived in Scotland once a 
fine old character whom the people named "Old Mortality." His 
self appointed work for the last thirty years of his life was to 
visit the tombstones of the men who had given their life for their 
faith and to remove the moss and chisel deeper the inscriptions, 
that men might see and remember those whose bodies lay below. 
Your Society, Sir, has been doing for the American people the fine 
work of Old Mortality; and we now thank you for that work. You 
have puchased the site of old Fort Raleigh, you have marked deeper 
its outlines, and you have placed here a monument to tell to men 
that here, here on this holy and historic ground, the first real at- 
tempt at colonization was made in this American soil, that here 
the first English-American baby was born, that here the first Sacra- 
ment of the Church was performed in the English speech. We 
hope to carry on the good work you have begun; we hope, before 
many moons, according to the phrase of the people first living 



18 
here, to have a cross, facing your monument, in token of our Pil- 
grimage today, emphasizing more intensely the religious incidents 
of this first English settlement. 

My friends, I think we have not realized sufficiently how 
closely associated religion was with the first English colonization, 
how much of a missionary spirit animated our pioneer fore-fathers. 
The facts that stand out above all others in this settlement we new 
commemorate is the Baptism of Manteo, the first Indian convert 
to an English speaking Church, and the Baptism of Virginia Dare, 
the first child born of English parents in this new land. 

Sir Walter Raleigh gave one hundred pounds, a large sum in those 
days, to Governor White, to be invested in the new world, and the 
income to be devoted to "planting the Christian religion and in 
advancing the same." One of his chief motives in sending forth 
his colonies was "for the honor of God and in compassion for the 
poor infidel captivated by the devil." 

The primary object of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's expedition was 
"the carriage of God's Word into those mighty and vast countries." 
Probisher had his chaplain, Waif all; Drake, his Fletcher; Newton, 
his Hunt; and Lane his Heriot; the pious layman putting to shame, 
by his missionery labors, many an ordained Priest." 

"In the name and fear of God did these old explorers and ad- 
venturers put forth upon the almost unknown sea. The Body and 
Blood of Christ was their 'viaticum,' and the last home words 
that fell upon their ears, were the prayers and praises of the Book 
of Common Prayer. The Cross, with the arms of England at its foot, 
marked their discoveries and the chosen sites of settlement; and 
the words of their English Book of Prayer were said at morn and 
eve, wherever these dauntless voyag rs pursued their way, — north, 
till the impenetrable ice bound their path; south, till the farthest 
points of both hemispheres were reached; west, till in the broad 
rivers and inland seas of the new world they dreamed of finding 
a speedier way to Cathay and the spice yielding east. Everywhere 
these sailors and settlers went, until the fame of England's Queen 
and the faith of England's reformed Church were known through- 
cut the world. Each new acquisition of the unknown land, lying 
in the direction of the setting sun, was so much virgin soil res- 
cued from Spanish thralldom and frcm Rome's inquisitorial sway." 




Steamer "Virginia," Lying at Anchor, Roanoke Island. 



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Durant's Point Light, Pasquotank River and Albemarle Sound. 



kv lafoith ©raitrm 



Lient.»Gov. Francis D. Winston. 

"For more than three centuries, the spread of the English Speak- 
ing people over the world's waste places has been, not only the 
most striking feature of the world's history, but also the event 
of all others, most far reaching in its effects and its importance. 
The tongue, which Lord Bacon feared to use in his writings, 
lest they should remain forever unknown, to all but the inhabi- 
tants or a relatively unimportant insular Kingdom, is now m ; 
speech of two continents. 

The common law, which Lord Coke jealously upheld in the 
Southern half of a single European Island, is now the law of the 
land throughout the vast regions of Australia and of America, to 
the north of the Rio Grande. 

The names of the plays that Shakespeare wrote are household 
words in the mouths of mighty nations, whose wide domains were 
to him, more unreal than the realm of Prester John. 

Over half the descendants of their fellow countrymen, of that 
day, now dwell in lands, which, when these Englishmen were 
born, held not a single inhabitant. 

The race which, when they were in their prime, was hemmed in 
between the North and Irish seas, today holds sway over the world, 
whose endless coasts are washed by the waves of the three great 
oceans. 

There have been many other races, that at one time or another 
had their great periods of race expansion — as distinguished from 
mere conquest — but there has never been another whose expan- 
sion has been either so broad or so rapid. 

Contemporary with the philosopher, with the judge, with the play- 
wright, was the diplomat, the soldier, the discoverer, Sir Walter 
Raleigh. 

It is familiar learning to every boy and girl in North Carolina, 
that in 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh, not disheartened by the sad fate 
of his step-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who perished the year 
previous on a voyage of discovery, obtained a patent from Queen 
Elizabeth and fitted out two ships, under Philip Amidas and Ar- 
thur Barlow. In April 1584 these ships left the shores of old Eng- 
land, and in July they touched here the sands of the New World. 



22 
It was then and here the meteor flag of England was first displayed 1 
in these United States and on yonder shore rested the first Anglo- 
Saxon anchor. 

We are told that the season of the year was mild. The sea was 
calm. The air was redolent with the perfume of fragrant flowers., 
and as expressed by Amidas in his report to Sir Walter Raleigh, "the 
fragrance, as they drew near the land, was as if they had been in 
the midst of some delicate garden, abounding in all manner of 
odoriferous flowers. The loneliness of the scnery. and the mildness 
of the climate, were excelled by the gentleness of the inhabitants, 
who received the strangers with all the hospitality, that, since that 
hour, has characterized the spot on which they landed. 

As they who follow the well worn trails across mountain heights 
and peaks, are delighted with the varied landscapes, though many 
times they have gazed on them, so the students of the early voyages 
of discovery in America, now read these isolated points of history in 
a new light. The centuries gone uncover much that obscures the 
past, and the student of today may speak with exactness of the time 
when the shores of the new world first met the vision of the hardy 
navigator. 

In tracing the development of a country there are always two 
periods that engage the attention of the historian — the period of dis- 
covery and the period of colonization. 

The period of discovery passes away with the record of its oc- 
currence. From the period of colonies we estimate and sum up re- 
sults. 

We are today much concerned with the voyages of discovery, be- 
cause they ultimately led to the voyages of settlement and coloniza- 
tion. 

From the year one thousand when a Norse navigator, in storm and 
stress of weather, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, was driven 
westward to New Foundland and Labrador, and saw those low 
coasts abounding in forests and unlike the cliffs of Greenland, until 
the landing of Columbus, the spirit of adventure led many naviga- 
tors to tempt the seas in quest of the world to the west. 

What has been done, whether by accident of design, may be eas- 
ily done again, and following the accidental discovery of the Norse- 
man, came repeated and successful attempts of his countrymen to 
verify his claims and find the New World. 

In the year that followed Lief Erickson's discovery, other com- 
panies of Norsemen came to the shores of America, landing in Maine 




; 4r~*i 





INDIANS FISHING 
From The John White Pictures.— Courtesy of Mr. H. I). \Y. Connor 



25 
and coming as far southward as the Capes of Virginia. They plant- 
ed colonies in Nova Scotia and New Poundland. Little was known 
and less was imagined, by these rude sailors, of the vast extent of 
the country they had discovered. They supposed that it was a por- 
tion of the western Greenland, which bending to the north, around 
an arm of the ocean, had reappeared in the west. The settlements 
which were made were feeble and soon broken up. 

Commerce was an impossibility in a country peopled by savages 
who neither bought, nor sold. The spirit of adventure was soon 
appeased, and the restless Norsemen returned to their own land. 

In proof of the Norse discovery of America I quote from "The 
Cosmos" of Humboldt. He says: "We are here on historical ground. 
By the critical and highly praiseworthy efforts of Professor E.afn 
and the Royal Society of Antiquities in Copenhagen, the sagas and 
documents in regard to the expedition of the Norsemen to New 
Poundland, Nova Scotia and Vinland, have been published and sat- 
isfactorily commented upon. The discovery of the Northern part of 
America by the Norsemen cannot be disputed. The length of the 
voyage, the direction in which they sailed, the time of the sun's 
rising and setting, are accurately given. While the Caliphate of 
Bagdad was still flourishing, America was discovered, about the 
year A. D. 1000 by Lief, son of Eric, the red, at the lattitude of 
forty-one and a half degrees north." 

An event is to be weighed by its consequences. From these dis- 
coveries of America, by the Norsemen, nothing whatever resulted. 
The colonizing race had not yet set foot on American soil. The 
world was neither wiser nor better. Among the Icelanders the 
name and place of Vinland — which they gave it — were forgotten. 
The red man roamed an undisturbed monarch. Europe slept in 
ignorance of such a country, and of such a discovery. Historians, 
until of late, have been incredulous on this subject. And the fact 
was as though it had never been. The curtain which had been lifted 
for a moment, was again stretched from sea to sky, and the new 
world still lay hidden in the shadows. 

The men who first visited the shores of the new world, were a 
race of hardy adventurers, as lawless and restless as any that 
ever sailed the deep. Their mariners and soldiers penetrated every 
clime. The better parts of France and England fell under their do- 
minion. All the monarchs of England, after the conquering William, 
himself the grandson of a sea king, are discendants of the Vikings. 



26 

They were rovers of the sea, free hooters and pirates, warriors, 
audacious and headstrong, wearing hoods surmounted with eagle 
wings, and their tusks of walrus, mailed armor, and, for robes, the 
skins of polar hears. Woe to the people on whose defenceless 
coasts the sea king landed with sword and torch. Their wayward 
life and ferocious disposition are well portrayed in one of their own 
well known ballads. 

"He scorns to rest 'neath the smoky rafter; 
He plows with his boat the roaming deep, 

The billows boil, and the storm howls after, 
But the tempest is only a thing of laughter, 
The sea king loves it better than sleep." 

The breeze of discovery lifts the curtain at intervals and during 
the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, glimpses of the 
New World caught the eye of the explorer and adventurer. And 
again the darkness settled on the sea and the light went out. 

It was reserved for the people of a sunnier clime than Iceland, 
first to make known to the European nations the existence of a 
western continent. 

Spain was the happy country, under whose auspicious patron- 
age, a New World was to be added to the Old, but the man 
who was destined to make the revelation was not himself a Spaniard. 
He was to come from genial Italy, the land of olden valor, and the 
home of so much greatness. 

Christopher Columbus was the name of the man whom after 
ages have justly rewarded with this imperishable renown. His 
merited fame is not full orbed. 

Of all the wrongs done to the memory of Columbus, and there 
were many, perhaps the greatest was that which robbed him of 
the name of the new continent. This honor fell to a Florentine navi- 
gator, the least worthy of all those adventurers, whom the genius 
and success of Columbus had drawn to the west. Had Columbus 
first touched North Carolina, and Vespucius first touched Massa- 
chusetts, this could well be accounted for. Columbus and North 
Carolina made history, and did not write it. Massachusetts wrote 
the history of her great deeds. Vespucius was the first to publish 
an account of the western world. In this narrative he omitted all 
reference to Columbus who led him thither, and by this craft, the 
name of the pretended, rather than that of the true discoverer, was 
given to the New World. 

A track had been blazed across the waste of waters, and in rapid 
succession the adventurous barque sailed our seas. Let us for a 



2- >! 

'6 !"" 



§ = 

3-5 




29 

moment recall some of those gold hunters, whose deeds of valor left 
no benefit to mankind and who built no foundation for worthy citi- 
zenship. They were mostly spectacular, with gaudy pageants. 

We see them on the page of narrative— Balboa, wading in the 
water of the Pacific, with drawn sword, after the pompous Spanish 
fashion, taking possession of the ocean in the name of the king 
of Spain — Ponce de Loon, seeking the fountain of perpetual youth 
in the land of flowers, in which to bathe and make his wasted and 
enfeebled body young and strong forever— Cordova in the Bay of 
Campeachy killed by the natives on his discovery of Yucatan — 
Cortez landing his fleet at Tabasco and beginning his famous con- 
quest of Mexico, ending in the overthrow of the Montezuma. The 
sixteenth century opening with the daring enterprises of Magellan 
who discovered the Philippine and Pacific Islands, and who first 
•circum.navigated the globe, giving reality to the theory of the old 
astronomers, of Manderville and of Columbus, that the earth was 
spherical. The first slave enterprise, when Ayllon and six other 
wealthy men. eager to stock their plantations with slaves, determ- 
ined to do so by kidnapping natives from the Bahama Islands, and 
their sinking ships destroyed in an avenging storm. Narvaez open- 
ing the trail which led the cavalier de Soto from the land of the 
Incas to the Father of Waters and Malendez whose journeyings com- 
pleted in the New World Spanish exploitation, ending with an es- 
tablished colony in Florida. 

The Spaniard simply sat down in the midst of a much more nu- 
merous aboriginal population, and Spanish military rulers and 
civil officers, traders, land owners, and mine owners, settled down 
among the Indians of Mexico and Peru, and most of them today 
trace their lineage back to the subjects of the Montezuma and the 
Incas. 

The Portuguese made but one important voyage to America. When 
Columbus discovered America, the unambitious John the Second, was 
king of Portugal. He paid but little attention to the New World. 
He preferred the dullness and security of his own capitol to the 
splendid allurements of the Atlantic. His successor was of a differ- 
ent type. King Manuel could hardly forgive his predecessor, for 
having allowed Spain to snatch from the flag of Portugal, the glory 
of Columbus' achievements. In order to secure some of the bene- 
fits that yet remained, he fitted out two vessels in 1501. and com* 
missioned Gaspard Cotterial to sail on a voyage of discovery. These 



vessels touched tlie coast of Maine and the startling incident of the 
expendition was the seizing of fifty Indians and their sale as slaves 
in the markets of Portugal. Another voyage was undertaken with 
the avowed purpose of capturing another cargo of natives for the 
slave mart of Europe. The fate of these slave ships is one of the 
unsolved mysteries of the sea. Thus ended the second attempt to> 
make America the land whence freemen might be taken from the 
forests and- carried to other lands to be made slaves. America was 
reserved for no such purpose. Rather it was a land where the 
slave was to go, seeking freedom and here was ultimately estab- 
lished that perfect trinity of freedom — of body, of mind, of soul. 

France was net slow to profit by the discovery of Columbus. Ik 
1624, Francis I, king of France, sent out an Expedition which 
discovered the main land of North Carolina near Wilmington and 
thence turning northward finally dropped anchor between the mouth 
of Cape Fear river and Cape Lookout. Colonization, rather than 
discovery, was the inspiring motive that sent French vessels to our 
shores. 

The most noted of these voyages was James Cartier, who explored 
the St. Lawrence. This first colony was recruited from the jails 
of France. The peasants and artisans of sunny France were, 
not quick to embark for a county, that promised nothing better 
than savages and snow. The government opened the prison doors 
to all who would join the expedition. There was a rush of swin- 
dlers, robbers and murderers and the lists were immediately filled. 

It is of interest to us to note, that the name Carolina is asso- 
ciated with the first attempt to escape religious persecuion by the 
Huguenots. It was during the reign of Charles the Ninth of France, 
that John Dieppe, a brave and experienced sailer, was selected to 
lead the Huguenots to the land of promise, and to plant a colony 
of protestants in the New World. He reached the shores of Florida, 
near St. Augustine. A fort was erected and in honor of Charles 
the Ninth it was named Carolina; a name, which a century after- 
wards, was retained by the English and applied to the whole coun- 
try from the Savannah river to the Southern boundary of Virginia. 

But to Samuel Champlain more than to any one man, more than 
to the French government itself, the French colonies of North 
America must be attributed. He was a religious enthusiast, and 
with his founding of Quebec, in 1612, came Franciscan monks to 
preach among the Indians. 



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33 

No day in. the early history of the New Word was more important 
than the 5th of May, 1496. On that day Henry Seventh, king of 
England, signed the commission of John Cabot, of Venice, to make 
discoveries and expeditions in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, to 
carry the flag of England and in the name of her king to take pos- 
session of all islands and continents which he might discover. His 
landing on the eastern coast of Labrador was the real discovery of 
the American continent. Many causes impeded the career of Eng- 
lish settlement during the greater part of the sixteenth century. 

The next year after the New World was found, Alexander Sixth, 
Pope of Rome, drew an imaginary line north and south, three hun- 
dred miles west of the Azores and issued a Papal Bull, giving all 
islands and continents west of that line to Spain. Henry the Sev- 
enth of England was himself a Catholic, and he did not care to begin 
a conflict with his Church, by pressing his own claims to the newly 
found region of the west. His son and successor, Henry Eighth, at 
first adopted the same policy and it was not until after the Refor- 
mation had been accomplished in England, that the decision of the 
Pope came to be disregarded and finally despised and laughed at. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the first perhaps to conceive a ra- 
tional plan of colonization in America. His idea was to form some- 
where on the shore of the new continent an agriculture and com- 
mercial state. With the royal permission and aid, assisted by his 
illustrious step_brother Sir Walter Raleigh, he sailed in June 
15S3 for the west. 

The loss of Gilbert and the renewal of his project of colonization 
by Raleigh have been referred to and are familiar learning. I 
shall later on draw some conclusions from the first settlement 
here. 

Voyages of adventure, and discovery of the New World followed 
in rapid succession, many of them having in view the finding of a 
new route westward or eastward to the Indies. 

No more vivid chapter of life and development can be written than 
that of the parent colonies of America. The two pivotal points of 
colonization were one at the mouth of the James river and the 
other on Plymouth Rock at Cape Cod. 

The celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the former, 
was fittingly had last year, and the pilgrimage of our sister dio- 
ceses of America to that ancient and sacred shrine, was no more 
significant than our meeting here today on this hallowed ground. 



34 
Other colonies there were, but these stood for the type of men 
who were to develop America for more than two centuries. 

There was a marked — a fundamental — difference between them. 

The men of Massachusetts came to stay and built the humble 
cab) 1 in the frozen wood and wrote "freemen" on its threshhold. For 
many years the men of the Virginia colony looked fondly across 
the waters and spoke cf England as "heme." Heart and body must 
be in the same spot, for permanent development. The last colony 
to be established was in Georgia, founded in a spirit of pure benev- 
olence. Under the wise and humane Oglethorpe that colony was 
to be held in trust for the poor and there was to be no arrest for 
debt. 

I shall not further trace the story of the planting by our fathers 
of these colonies, nor recite their growth in population and power. 
From the gloomy coast of Labrador, where two hundred and fifty 
years before John Cabot had set up the flag of England and the 
arm of Henry Seventh, her king, to the sunny waters, where Ponce 
de Leon looking shoreward, called his cavaliers to gaze on the 
land of flowers, the dominion of Great Britain has been established. 

Would that dominion last forever? Would the other nations of 
Europe ever rally and regain their lost ascendency on the western 
continent? Would the t'es of kinship, the affinity of language, the 
bond of a common ancestry stretching from these sea shore com- 
monwealths across the Atlantic, bind them in perpetual union 
with the mother island? 

Would these isolated provinces in America, now so quick to take 
offense at each other's beliefs and actions and so easily jealous of 
each other's power and fame, ever unite in a common cause? Ever 
join to do battle for life and liberty? Ever become a Nation? 

Such were the momentous questions, the problems of destiny, 
which hung above the colonies at the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, problems which the future could not be long in solving. The 
history of these American colonies from the first beginnings is 
full of interest and instruction. 

The people who laid the foundations of colonization in this New 
World, were nearly all refugees, exiles, wanderers, pilgrims. They 
were urged across the ocean by a common impulse, and that im- 
pulse was the desire to escape from some form of oppression in 
the New World. Sometimes it was the oppression of the state. 
Sometimes it was the oppression of society. Sometimes it was the 



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37 
■oppression of the Churcli. In the wake of the emigrant ship there 
-was always tyranny. Men loved freedom; to find it they braved 
the perils of the deep, traversed the solitary forests of Maine, built 
log huts on the shores of New England, entered the Hudson, ex- 
plored the Jerseys, found shelter in the Chesapeake, met starva- 
tion and death on the banks of the James, were buffeted by storms 
around the capes of Carolina, and bravely dared Hatteras to dis- 
appear in mystery from this spot, built towns by the estuaries of 
.great rivers, made roads through pine forests and carried the 
dwellings of men to the very margin of the fever haunted swamps 
of the south. 

It is all one story, the story of the human race seeking for 
liberty. 

They found here the savage red man, happy and free, in pos- 
session of fields, forests and streams. He roamed at large, a king 
among the beasts of the forest, but at best himself only an im- 
proved animal. Before this all-conquering race he is gone and gone 
forever. He fulfilled none of the divine cammands. He did not 
hunger and thirst after righteousness; he was not poor in spirit, 
nor pure in heart, nor meek, nor merciful. He could not inherit the 
earth. God's lav/ is a law of service. That race shall survive and 
inherit the earth, which renders to the earth the greatest service; 
service of daily lives employed in useful labor, of hearts filled with 
love and unselfishness, of souls inspired with noble ideals, of 
heroic self-sacrifice and devotion to the higher interests of hu- 
manity. The Indian is gone. The Negro is going. The white man 
v/ill survive in fulfillment of the laws of God. There is no room 
on earth today for vicious, incompetent and immoral races. White 
civilization is triumphant, because it is best; Christianity will rule 
the earth because it is a religion of love and service. The cannibal 
races of Africa, the idolatrous races in Asia, the savage Indian and 
the semi-civilized negro in America must all learn the laws of God, 
and fulfil them in their daily lives, or else pay the penalty of decay 
and final extinction. And the white races, amid the roar and hum 
of daily toil and labor, amid the bounties of wealth and prosperity, 
amid the glories of victories won in wars waged for the oppressed; 
amid cities of marble and iron, oceans covered with ships, conti- 
nents yellow with golden grain or white with fleecy cotton; amid 
wealth of power and luxury; amid education and art and culture; 
amid commerce, agriculture and manufacturies, the white races no 



38° 

>ess than the red and black must listen to the still" small voice of 
God as it speaks through all the ages, "peace be still and know 
that I am God. I "will be exalted among the heathen, I will foe 
exalted in the earth." 

The two colonies that controlled the destinies of America for two 
hundred years were the Puritan of Cape Cod, and the Cavalier at 
Jamestown. They were far apart in thought, word and act. The 
commonwealth planted on the bleak coast of New England grew 
rich and strong in educated labor, in labor saving machinery, in 
commerce, in trade, in manufacturies, in domestic economy, ins 
great enterprises demanding the co-operation of accumulated cap- 
ital with intelligent and ambitious labor, in efficient and economi- 
cal administration of public affairs. It became the land of the' 
steam, engine and steam boat, the factory and the mill, the railroad. 
and the telegraph. In the South, twenty-one years before, another 
colony was planted. Its basis was not universal education. Its- 
leaders were heroes and giants in intellect and in character. They 
planted a commonwealth unequaled in modern times for the pa- 
triotism, learning and virtue of its public men; for the beauty,, 
purity and grace of its women; for the matchless eloquence of its 
orators; for the fortitude and gallantry of its soldiers and for un- 
conquerable devotion to personal liberty and constitutional govern- 
ment. It was an agricultural colony of strong and simple lifd 
without cities, without factories, with little commerce. Its char- 
acter was patriarchal and its power proceeded not from the mass 
of its people, but from their mighty leaders. It did not compre- 
hend the power of universal education. 

Twenty-seven years after the landing of ithe Mayflower on 
Plymouth Rock, the general court of Massachusetts ordered that 
every fifty families in the colony should maintain a public school. 
Harvard college was then eleven years old and was founded be- 
fore the first child born in that colony was old enough to enter 
its doors. Not so with the James river settlement. "Thank God," 
said Governor Berkley, "there are no free schools in Virginia, nor 
are there likely to be for yet a hundred years." 

Between these colonies began a struggle for possession of the 
continent. That struggle though colored by sectional prejudice and 
apparently political was in its essence industrial. It was a strug- 
gle of the free educated labor of the North against the unedu- 
cated slave labor of the South. 



39 
One by one new States were taken into the Union, free or slave, 
as the emigrant from Massachusetts or Virginia first possessed the 
virgin lands of the west. But the struggle was unequal; the 
educated free labor of New England mounted upon the steam engine, 
traveled faster and wrought greater labors than the Southern 
planter carrying upon his back its negro slave. The struggle 
closed at Appomattox and a new type was evolved, founded on uni- 
versal manhood and educated labor. 

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 

And God fulfils Himself in many ways, 

Lest one good custom should corrupt the whole." 

Raleigh's colony on Roanoke Island was the first planting of the 
English race in America. It came for that purpose; others had 
come before, but not to plant a race. 

The Norsemen had come, across frozen seas, with the daring 
and endurance of demigods. They sought only adventure and con- 
quest. The Spaniard had come, but only for love of gold. Cortez 
had conquered Mexico and Pizarro Peru. The Spanish flag waved 
and the Spanish cross glistened on the peaks of the Andes and 
the shores of the Pacific, but no where in the New World, until 
Raleigh sent his colony to Roanoke Island here, was heard the 
cry of an infant child, of pure Caucasian blood, proclaiming the 
birth of the white race on the western hemisphere. 

The Norsemen and the Spaniards came with sword and cannon, 
with cross and crucifix, to conquer and plunder. Soldiers and sail- 
ors, priests and friars, adventurers and plunderers, pirates of the 
sea and robbers of the land, forsaking wives, children and home, they 
sought in the New World new fields for lust, avarice and con- 
quest. They left their women behind and took to wife the savage 
women of America. Behold the result today in the hybrid races of 
Mexico, and of Central and South America. Spanish fathers, In- 
dian mothers, hybrid children, homes of lust and tyranny! Immeas- 
urable inequalities, between father, mother and children. 

Raleigh knew better; scholar, soldier, orator, statesman and 
philosopher, he knew that the English race with its splendid civil- 
ization, could be transplanted to America by transplanting the 
English home. He knew that civilization every where is built upon 
the home and that every home is what the mother makes it. He 
filled his ships with women, as well as men; he sent out colonies, 
not pirates; he planted in America, not English forts, but the Eng- 



40 
lish race. The Governor of his colony set the example of taking his 
wife and family, among them a grown daughter, Eleanor, a young 
wife and expectant mother. Here was life in all its gentleness and 
fullness. What need for guns and cannon here! When the infant 
cry of Virginia Dare was heard on Roanoke Island, it sounded 
around the world, and called across the seas all the millions who 
since have come to build the American nation. It was a new cry 
in a new world; a mightier sound than the clash of sword, or the 
roar of cannon; a sweeter call than the vesper bell of hooded priest 
with his vows of celibacy. 

That baby cry sounded the death knell of Spanish power in the 
universe and the final overthrow every where of king craft, priest 
craft and lust craft. It told anew the old story of life, how every 
life, not only of the individual human being, but also of races, 
nations and civilizations, must begin with and be dependent on a 
little child; a little child born in lawful wedlock, a pledge of holy 
love between man and woman, equally matched and equally sharing 
the joys and responsibilities of life. 

This was the lesson of Raleigh's colonies; the lesson that the 
Spaniard never heard in all his heroic efforts to conquer and 
possess the new world. In Spanish conquest and colonization no 
part was played by women and children; it was a jungle struggle 
for the mastery between human animals. 

In English conquest and colonization women and children went 
hand and hand with men. Wherever the English race has gone, 
to Roanoke Island, to Lucknow, to Gettysburg, a little child has 
led them; led them in affection, in memory, in inspiration to deeds 
of daring and fortitude. Among all the little children of our race, 
none stands out more pathetic, more dramatic, more significant of 
mighty events than the child of Raleigh's colony, the first Anglo 
Saxon born in America, little Virginia Dare, native of North Caro- 
lina. 

And here today we celebrate her baptism. The first Anglo Saxon 
baptism in America. 

A picture of her christening should hang in our Nation's capitol, 
with mother and babe and minister of God, as the central figure and 
around them grouped the little colony, standing on the shore of 
this island; to the east the deep blue ocean stretching far away, 
on its ever restless bosom an endless procession of ships bringing 
races and nations from the old world to new life, liberty, freedom; 
to the west endless multitudes of Anglo Saxons peopling the con- 




Returning to the Steamer After tlie Service. 



41 

tinent and making indeed a new world; and underneath this in- 
scription: 

"And a little Child shall lead them." 



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